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Tag Archives: drawing

Witches and Mermaids and Bears, Oh my!

February 18, 2022by karencomics Leave a comment

I’m almost caught up with my musings about last year’s art — just this one more post about my brief foray into doing Witchtober and then it’s on to more […]

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art challenge, It's an artist's life, Pen and Ink, writing

Limbo in the Studio

January 28, 2022by karencomics 3 Comments

No, I’m not doing that crazy dance where you try to defy gravity while wriggling under a low bar! I don’t have the limber for the limbo, and besides, I […]

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art challenge, Inspiration, It's an artist's life, Procreate, sketchbook

Sketchbook Roundup 1: Animal Kingdom

April 22, 2020by karencomics Leave a comment

It’s Earth Day, and I’m stuck inside, as so many of us are these days… Hi! It’s been a while. I’m weathering this all OK, since as an artist, I’m […]

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animal art, art challenge, Illustration, zooly

The April Fool’s Easter Bundragon

April 1, 2018by karencomics 3 Comments

How often do April Fool’s Day and Easter fall on the same day? I couldn’t resist the urge to do this funny li’l guy, once he’d popped into my head! […]

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coloured pencils, gouache, Illustration

Drawing a Crow in Coloured Pencil

March 13, 2018by karencomics 10 Comments

Seems like crows are everywhere these days. For us urban dwellers, they’re one of the few representatives of wildlife we see on a regular basis. Social media is full of […]

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coloured pencils, Technique of the Week, tutorials, Uncategorized

Zooly Comics and Drawings

July 8, 2017by karencomics 3 Comments

The Zooly Art Challenge has got me back in the studio, though my eyesight challenges are still, um, challenging. This week I’ll be getting my other new eye, and hopefully […]

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art challenge, Drawing-a-Day, zooly

The Zooly Art Challenge

June 26, 2017by karencomics 14 Comments

Zooly is a month-long art challenge during the month of July, dreamed up by Karen Gillmore and Melody Pena, two artists who both like drawing and sculpting animals. Every day for the month of July, there will be a prompt for an animal to spark your creative juices.

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art challenge

Magic Vision — Through Science!

June 19, 2017by karencomics 9 Comments

As a visual artist, my eyesight is of prime importance, and I’ve just embarked on the life-changing experience of having my vision corrected — surgically. I’ve been extremely nearsighted since […]

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It's an artist's life

The Cold Beasties

June 5, 2017by karencomics 7 Comments

Sometimes, usually in situation comedies, one might end up going to the wrong party instead of the intended festive destination. Maybe the address was garbled, maybe the wrong kind of […]

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Colouring Pages, It's an artist's life

Inktober: Limitations and Freedom!

October 15, 2016by karencomics 1 Comment

Inktober is rolling on, and my little Moleskine book is filling out nicely! I feel like I’m hitting my stride with these, after being a bit rusty with the one-page […]

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art challenge, Drawing-a-Day, Inktober

Galapagos Mistaken Identity

October 9, 2016by karencomics Leave a comment

One place I’ve always wanted to go is to the Galapagos. Since reading articles in the National Geographic as a child, I’ve longed to see the islands that inspired Mr. […]

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art challenge, Drawing-a-Day, Inktober

Ask an Elephant!

October 7, 2016by karencomics Leave a comment

I’ve been having an ongoing conversation with a lot of my friends lately over the lost art of map-reading. Seems all this GPS usage is eroding the ability to read […]

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art challenge, Drawing-a-Day, Inktober, Uncategorized

Whale Candy

October 4, 2016by karencomics Leave a comment

Inktober is cooking along nicely on day 4. And good news— I’m winding up the humongous book illustration project that has had me cooped up in the art cave for […]

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art challenge, Drawing-a-Day, Inktober

Meanwhile, in Australia…

October 3, 2016by karencomics Leave a comment

Day 3: Today’s Inktober word was “collect”. I suppose I could have just drawn my animal model collection, but it was too obvious. Also, too many animals! So… what’s the […]

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art challenge, Inktober, Uncategorized

Inktober: a Whale of a Tail

October 2, 2016by karencomics Leave a comment

It’s day two of Inktober! I’m still putting in long hours on a book project, so didn’t have much time to do today’s offering—but it turned out all right, I […]

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Inktober, Uncategorized

Colored Pencil Magazine Article!

May 31, 2016by karencomics 2 Comments

Hey, art-process fans! Want to know how I made this comic? I just got word that the article I submitted to Colored Pencil Magazine is now in the June issue, […]

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coloured pencils, Comics, Illustration, Technique

Takeout Planet!

May 11, 2016by karencomics 1 Comment

I’ve been working like mad on the new book of the Quadra Cats stories. It’s based on the single-page episodes, but with much, much more added to link them together into […]

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Cats, Comics, Uncategorized

Quadra Cats Book!

April 29, 2016by karencomics 7 Comments

I’ve been working on a mini-comicbook of the Quadra Cats cartoons! I’ve got the script done, which will tie together most of the existing cartoons into a continuous story. Because they […]

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Cats, Comics, Uncategorized

Art Zombie!

March 8, 2016by karencomics 12 Comments

It’s been an intense month-and-a-bit here in my studio. When last I wrote, I had embarked on a daily challenge to make art every day. Now, it’s not an unusual […]

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art challenge, Comics, It's an artist's life

Opus Daily Practice Challenge

February 1, 2016by karencomics 5 Comments

Iris the Art Muse was groaning and face-palming. She couldn’t believe I was contemplating doing another art challenge. I told her, “It’s OK—see, I’m just going to do stuff that we […]

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Comics, Drawing-a-Day

Watercolour Pencils = Fun

January 16, 2016by karencomics 6 Comments

I spent a lovely day today teaching an all-day workshop in Watercolour Pencils to thirteen keen and creative folks. The way to tell when people are really “in the zone” in […]

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Watercolour pencils (aquarelles)

Monotype Madness!

January 12, 2016by karencomics Leave a comment

I just got back from a lovely evening with an artist group that I had not met before! The Juan de Fuca Arts and Crafts Guild Painters meet once a month […]

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It's an artist's life, Printmaking

Inktober Black Cats

October 20, 2015by karencomics 9 Comments

More Inktober goodies — this time I decided to tackle the challenge of black cats. Shiny black cats. Black cats are notorious for being hard to photograph, and drawing them […]

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Cats, Ink, Inktober

More Inktober Drawings

October 15, 2015by karencomics 2 Comments

I’m really enjoying Inktober (see my last post for more about that), especially with these little elf characters I’m designing! Here are three more little guys that I’ve done in […]

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Ink, Inktober

Inspired by Inktober!

October 12, 2015by karencomics 3 Comments

I’m doing Inktober! I’ve been hearing about Inktober for several years now, watching my friends post their  ink drawings on their social media, but didn’t know what it was about. […]

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Brush and Ink, Ink, Inktober

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The Quadra Cats, a webcomic

The cover of Takeout Planet, the first book in the Quadra Cats series

When the neighbourhood cats meet a takeout-obsessed Alien Cat, they become impromptu ambassadors for Earth! Updates Mondays and Thursdays.

Mermaid Music, a webcomic!

Mermaid Music, Book One cover

Mermaid music is the story of a girl who accidentally runs away to sea, and finds herself in deep water indeed! Click the image to read the webcomic from the beginning.

All text and images © Karen Gillmore 2014 -2017

...except as otherwise noted. If you share, please link back to this blog — you'll feel a warm glow right in your karma!

Celtic Art

Wolf and the Stones (pen & ink, watercolour, coloured pencil)
Wolf and the Stones (pen & ink, watercolour, coloured pencil)
Wolf and the Stones (pen & ink)
Wolf and the Stones (pen & ink)
Eostre (pen & ink, watercolour, coloured pencil)
Eostre (pen & ink, watercolour, coloured pencil)
Eostre (pen & ink)
Eostre (pen & ink)
Celtic Green Man (pen & ink, watercolour)
Celtic Green Man (pen & ink, watercolour)
Celtic Green Man (pen & ink)
Celtic Green Man (pen & ink)
Celtic Dragon (pen & ink, embellished version)
Celtic Dragon (pen & ink, embellished version)
Celtic Dragon (pen & ink, outline version)
Celtic Dragon (pen & ink, outline version)
Elemental Steed: Air (acrylic)
Elemental Steed: Air (acrylic)
Elemental Steed: Water (acrylic)
Elemental Steed: Water (acrylic)
Elemental Steed: Fire (acrylic)
Elemental Steed: Fire (acrylic)
Elemental Steed: Earth (acrylic)
Elemental Steed: Earth (acrylic)
Elemental Manifestations: Water (pen & ink, watercolour, collage)
Elemental Manifestations: Water (pen & ink, watercolour, collage)
Elemental Manifestations: Fire (pen & ink, watercolour, collage)
Elemental Manifestations: Fire (pen & ink, watercolour, collage)
Elemental Manifestations: Air (pen & ink, watercolour, collage)
Elemental Manifestations: Air (pen & ink, watercolour, collage)
Elemental Manifestations: Earth (pen & ink, watercolour, collage)
Elemental Manifestations: Earth (pen & ink, watercolour, collage)
Celtic Seahorses (linocut on banana paper)
Celtic Seahorses (linocut on banana paper)
Celtic Seahorses (pen and ink)
Celtic Seahorses (pen and ink)
Celtic Seahorses (pen & ink, watercolour, coloured pencil)
Celtic Seahorses (pen & ink, watercolour, coloured pencil)

Coloured Pencil

"Two Lips" — from a photo I snapped of a bunch of tulips someone had given me. As the petals started to fall away, they got more and more interesting. This one took quite a long time, lots of burnishing.
“Two Lips” — from a photo I snapped of a bunch of tulips someone had given me. As the petals started to fall away, they got more and more interesting. This one took quite a long time, lots of burnishing.
"White Rose" — I took a bunch of white silk roses into a class I was teaching one day, and we all had a good time trying to make them look natural, adding backgrounds and suggestions of colour.
“White Rose” — I took a bunch of white silk roses into a class I was teaching one day, and we all had a good time trying to make them look natural, adding backgrounds and suggestions of colour.
"Sheltered" — a demonstration on doing an underpainting in dark grey pencil to establish the values turned into this.
“Sheltered” — a demonstration on doing an underpainting in dark grey pencil to establish the values turned into this.
"Broken Seashell" — I like to pick up broken seashells, because their curves are challenging and fun to draw. For this one, I used a technique I often use for figure drawing — woking on toned paper and just picking out the deepest shadow and the highlights with white and black pencils.
“Broken Seashell” — I like to pick up broken seashells, because their curves are challenging and fun to draw. For this one, I used a technique I often use for figure drawing — woking on toned paper and just picking out the deepest shadow and the highlights with white and black pencils.
"Falling Apples" — When I teach a coloured pencil workshop, I often go buy a bag of apples and hand one out to everyone. Apples are excellent subjects for learning how to build up colour from light to dark. After my demo, he whole class goes back to their tables and becomes very quiet for a while — silence is the sound of creativity! One class I actually had time to draw my apple several times on the same page.
“Falling Apples” — When I teach a coloured pencil workshop, I often go buy a bag of apples and hand one out to everyone. Apples are excellent subjects for learning how to build up colour from light to dark. After my demo, he whole class goes back to their tables and becomes very quiet for a while — silence is the sound of creativity! One class I actually had time to draw my apple several times on the same page.
"El Morro" — the famous landmark fort at the mouth of Havana harbour. I got really caught up in the rocks on this one.
“El Morro” — the famous landmark fort at the mouth of Havana harbour. I got really caught up in the rocks on this one.
"Pink Rose" — One of the most burnished coloured pencil paintings I have ever produced. This little thing is the size of a greeting card, and it took me many hours.
“Pink Rose” — One of the most burnished coloured pencil paintings I have ever produced. This little thing is the size of a greeting card, and it took me many hours.
"Bear Hangout" — from a photo I took in Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo. There were no visible fences, and everyone wanted to know how I'd gotten so close to the bears! Usually I would just smile and look mysterious.
“Bear Hangout” — from a photo I took in Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo. There were no visible fences, and everyone wanted to know how I’d gotten so close to the bears! Usually I would just smile and look mysterious.
Woman in Blue — indigo and white Prismacolor pencils on toned paper
Woman in Blue — indigo and white Prismacolor pencils on toned paper
Relaxing Woman — burnt sienna and white coloured pencils on toned paper; a fifteen minute pose
Relaxing Woman — burnt sienna and white coloured pencils on toned paper; a fifteen minute pose
The Blues — Indigo and white coloured pencils on toned paper _ ten minute pose
The Blues — Indigo and white coloured pencils on toned paper _ ten minute pose
Man Forming a Triangle — coloured pencils on toned paper. Going through my sketches, I was amused to see how many similar poses I've drawn over the years — there are only so many ways the human body can fold up, after all. I thought this drawing made an interesting comparison with the previous one.
Man Forming a Triangle — coloured pencils on toned paper. Going through my sketches, I was amused to see how many similar poses I’ve drawn over the years — there are only so many ways the human body can fold up, after all. I thought this drawing made an interesting comparison with the previous one.
sm flower demo 9
"Golden Retriever" — coloured pencil. I got the detail of the brush in the background by indenting the paper through a piece of tracing paper with a pencil. The tracing paper protected the working paper from the pencil, and I was able to lightly colour over the indented lines with my coloured pencils, building up layers of mixed colours. I eventually decided the white lines this left were too stark, and went in with very sharp pencils in different colours to tone them down.
“Golden Retriever” — coloured pencil. I got the detail of the brush in the background by indenting the paper through a piece of tracing paper with a pencil. The tracing paper protected the working paper from the pencil, and I was able to lightly colour over the indented lines with my coloured pencils, building up layers of mixed colours. I eventually decided the white lines this left were too stark, and went in with very sharp pencils in different colours to tone them down.

Watercolours

"Mount Baker Dreams" — The ferry from Sidney BC to Anacortes , Washington puts in at one of the islands in between. This is what I saw from the dock.
“Mount Baker Dreams” — The ferry from Sidney BC to Anacortes , Washington puts in at one of the islands in between. This is what I saw from the dock.
"Sunshine" — funny how cats always find the warm spot in the house!
“Sunshine” — funny how cats always find the warm spot in the house!
"Bones of the Earth" — a mountain in the Montana Mission Range that has an oddly shaped top above the treeline. It is not a volcano, but I suspect there is a hollow at the top with a lake. However, I did not climb up there to see.
“Bones of the Earth” — a mountain in the Montana Mission Range that has an oddly shaped top above the treeline. It is not a volcano, but I suspect there is a hollow at the top with a lake. However, I did not climb up there to see.
Wickaninnish Wind — This tree stands by the parking lot at Wickaninnish Beach , in Pacific Rim National Park.
Wickaninnish Wind — This tree stands by the parking lot at Wickaninnish Beach , in Pacific Rim National Park.
"One Perfect Rose" — an anniversary card I made for my husband some years ago.
“One Perfect Rose” — an anniversary card I made for my husband some years ago.
"Willow Banks" — part of a large wetland park at the base of Montana's Mission Mountains that I visited once.
“Willow Banks” — part of a large wetland park at the base of Montana’s Mission Mountains that I visited once.
"Rainbow Pebbles" — many of the techniques described here are used in this painting
“Rainbow Pebbles” — many of the techniques described here are used in this painting
"Winter Tree" — a Christmas card I did for a friend; the white was all masked off with masking fluid, after which I could paint freely, knowing all that lovely snow would be preserved in pristine white paper.
“Winter Tree” — a Christmas card I did for a friend; the white was all masked off with masking fluid, after which I could paint freely, knowing all that lovely snow would be preserved in pristine white paper.
"Storm Building" — I used a paper towel to lift colour out of a solid sky wash for the clouds, then dripped in a bit of grey, then more water for the backwashes.
“Storm Building” — I used a paper towel to lift colour out of a solid sky wash for the clouds, then dripped in a bit of grey, then more water for the backwashes.
pebble sampler — I make samplers of many of the techniques during class, using pebble shapes.
pebble sampler — I make samplers of many of the techniques during class, using pebble shapes.
Wildly blooming
Wildly blooming
"Haunted River" — painted over a saran-wrap texture in multiple glazes; an example of mixing paint on the paper.
“Haunted River” — painted over a saran-wrap texture in multiple glazes; an example of mixing paint on the paper.
"Night Lights" — the background nebula-like blooms of sky colour are salt; the individual stars are dots of white ink.
“Night Lights” — the background nebula-like blooms of sky colour are salt; the individual stars are dots of white ink.
"Long Beach Sketch" — the backwashes created by dripping water into a wet wash created the clouds and the misty effects in the rocks on the right.
“Long Beach Sketch” — the backwashes created by dripping water into a wet wash created the clouds and the misty effects in the rocks on the right.
"Edge of the Woods" — I started with very light washes to build up the background and lighter tones of the foreground; the dark trees went in last.
“Edge of the Woods” — I started with very light washes to build up the background and lighter tones of the foreground; the dark trees went in last.
Cuban Tree
Cuban Tree
The UFOs are coming! Or maybe they are flying hats. Suggested by one of the students, I thought it was a great idea. This demo used salt and gouache to make stars and the explosions (or maybe they are fireworks). The city is just simple brushstrokes with a flat brush.
The UFOs are coming! Or maybe they are flying hats. Suggested by one of the students, I thought it was a great idea. This demo used salt and gouache to make stars and the explosions (or maybe they are fireworks). The city is just simple brushstrokes with a flat brush.
This demo was to blend a nice sunset wash, and to show how to make very quick trees with brush scribbles.
This demo was to blend a nice sunset wash, and to show how to make very quick trees with brush scribbles.
This demo was to show lifting paint out of a blended wash (and add some more for shadows) to make clouds, and how to make aerial perspective by making distant things lighter and bluer. I wasn't sure what the landscape was going to be, it sort of evolved as I went along.
This demo was to show lifting paint out of a blended wash (and add some more for shadows) to make clouds, and how to make aerial perspective by making distant things lighter and bluer. I wasn’t sure what the landscape was going to be, it sort of evolved as I went along.
Demo to show masking (I masked off the blue areas), and how to draw people in about ten seconds! This is kind of a bizarre picture because the blue areas look like holes in the sky, but I kind of like that effect.
Demo to show masking (I masked off the blue areas), and how to draw people in about ten seconds! This is kind of a bizarre picture because the blue areas look like holes in the sky, but I kind of like that effect.
"The Sky's the Limit" — a tiny painting, 4x6 inches, in which I demonstrated lifting wet paint to reveal the light.
“The Sky’s the Limit” — a tiny painting, 4×6 inches, in which I demonstrated lifting wet paint to reveal the light.
"New Horizons" — watercolour, 4x6 inches
“New Horizons” — watercolour, 4×6 inches

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